New Delhi, Oct 4 : Cygnus Hospitals, which operates a chain of super speciality units in Delhi and Haryana, aims to add another 40 hospitals in north India in next three years.

The Delhi-based group currently has 10 hospitals in various places, including Delhi, Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, and Kurukshetra.

"The journey of Cygnus Hospitals accelerated when investors like Somerset and Fidelity backed our growth. By March 2016, we will have 15 medical facilities and by March 2018, we will grow to a total of 50 hospitals," Cygnus Group of Hospitals Director Dinesh Batra said in a statement.

While he did not share the investments for the planned expansion last year, the group had raised about Rs 60 crore in a new round of funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India and existing backer Somerset Indus Capital Fund.

Batra said the focus of the hospital chain will be on small towns and rural areas. It plans to open majority of hospitals in tier II and tier III towns of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

"Our emphasis is on small towns in order to ensure secondary and tertiary care in the remotest of areas around India where people die on way to big city after heart attack, accident or any other medical emergency. We want to protect lives of rural Indians," he added.

Cygnus follows an asset light model where it does not own the land or building where the hospitals are located. The company leases the asset created by third party, converting them to super speciality hospitals to ensure secondary and tertiary care. MSS RKL ADI STS ABM MR

Only in India the healthcare financing is very small when compared to the financing by the other forces rather than the patient himself or herself paying out of pocket. Having 70-75% of the expenses as out-of-pocket, in my opinion, is not a right approach to managing healthcare in a country where the patients tend to sub-optimally purchase healthcare if he/she has to pay out-of-pocket.